Nearly a month before receiving that query, Villaraigosa had joined Tom Hanks, Magic Johnson, Walt Disney chief executive Robert Iger and Olympic champion Janet Evans among signatories to a letter making a pre-emptive expression of interest to the USOC.

The Los Angeles City Council passed a resoultion in support of a 2024 bid last August, when the USOC had not decided whether the next U.S. bid should be for the 2022 Winter Games or the 2024 Summer Games.

Los Angeles lost to Chicago in the final round of the domestic bid process for the 2016 Summer Games.

Chicago then was eliminated in the first round by the International Olympic Committee, which chose Rio de Janeiro.

The USOC would have to submit a candidate city to the IOC by an as-yet undetermined date in 2015. The IOC will chose the 2024 host some time in the latter half of 2017.

Sarah Hamilton, a spokesperson for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, said last month Chicago was not interested in bidding again.